NAFTA was supposed to lift Mexico out of third world status, but clueless Mexicans — unclear on the concept of entrepreneurship — did not take advantage of the opportunity by sensibly investing profits to improve their businesses, and instead paid themselves fat salaries. Then China came on strong and took away much of the manufacturing Mexicans thought they owned [Poverty, job issues heat up the presidential race in Mexico, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/18/06].

Some experts say Mexico's failure to compete against China is largely the fault of local business owners who failed to take advantage of NAFTA, the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

After trade with the United States boomed in the mid-to-late 1990s, many entrepreneurs spent their profits by adopting luxury lifestyles rather than investing in technology, said Pedro Lopez de Alba, director of the Guanajuato state Science and Technology Council. [...]

What's missing is a "real entrepreneurial culture," said Lopez de Alba. "The Mexican entrepreneur waits for the government and puts his hand out. There needs to be a cultural change in companies. If we don't change that mentality of business owners, we never will become a developed country."